Pages

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Esther 8

... and he had correspondence sent by the hand of the racers on the horses the riders of the steeds the mules and the foal of the mares. And they carried the message by email, Facebook, and twitter. Not to mention hard copy.

When the lies are dealt with, their consequences have to be undone. It takes 1000 years and more to undo lies. This is why it is better to know the revealed email and trust the transparent character. The character that tweets hatred is to be refused and destroyed and its devices with it.

If there is no God, and no instruction (Torah) and no monarch who incorporates a desirable character, then everyone will do what is right in their own eyes - a random selection of self-interest.

Better I think to have a monarch, where, even if invisible, a desirable character is modeled that is worth following.

The racers, the riders of the steeds, the mules, came forth, vexed but unrelenting by the word of the king. And the dictate was given in Shushan [the place of the lily, the place of love], the temple precincts.

And again Esther spoke in the presence of the king and fell before his feet,
and weeping, made supplication to him to transfer the evil of Haman the Agagite and his device that he had devised against the Judeans.

And said, If to the king it is good, and if I find grace in his presence, and the matter succeed in the presence of the king, and I am good in his eyes,
let it be written to turn back the correspondence devised by Haman child of Hammedatha the Agagite that he wrote to eliminate the Judeans that are in all the provinces of the king.

And the king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Judean,
Behold the house of Haman I have given to Esther, and him they hanged on the tree in that he extended his hand against the Judeans.

But you, you write on the Judeans as is good in your sight in the name of the king, and seal it with the ring of the king,
for the writing that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the ring of king is not to be reversed.

So the secretaries of the king were called out at that time in the third month (this is the month of Sivan) on its twenty-third and they wrote everything that Mordecai commanded, to the Judeans and to the satraps and the viceroys and the chiefs of the provinces that are from India to Cush, seven hundred and twenty one provinces, province by province, according to its writing, people by people according to its tongue,
and to the Judeans according to their writing and according to their tongue.

And he wrote in the name of the king Ahasuerus and sealed with the ring of the king,
and he had correspondence sent by the hand of the racers on the horses, the riders of the steeds, the Ahasuerian male foals of the broodmares.

In which the king granted for Judeans that were in every city, by city to convene and to stand for their very selves, to exterminate, and to slay, and to eliminate all the force of people or province, those besieging them, little ones and women,
and to take spoil of them, to loot.

And Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal clothing, amethyst and cream-white and a great crown of gold and regalia of sea silk and purple,
and the city of Shushan was bright and was glad.

And in every province, by province, and in every city, by city, the place that the word of the king and the dictate touched, gladness and joy for Judeans, a party and a good day,
and many from the people of the earth modeled on the Judeans, for dread of the Judeans fell on them.

3e

4C

41
23

I was tempted to use Judaized - Judean as a verb in verse 17. To use the Judeans, or the Jews as a model for behaviour is consistent with the teaching of the New Testament, but you wouldn't know that from Christians. Judaize has become a bad word of course, but that too is generally misunderstood even by sensible people. So I introduced the workaround, modeled on the Judeans, because we need good examples. But of course we must be able to distinguish good from evil - in ourselves and those who are other to us.